page_title: Milorad Čavić
section_title: 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics
hierarchical_section_title: Milorad Čavić / Olympic career / 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics
caption_attribution_description: FINA world Championships - Rome 2009
context_page_description: Milorad "Milo" Čavić is a Serbian former professional swimmer. He won silver medal on 100-meter butterfly at the 2008 Summer Olympics in a historic race with American swimmer Michael Phelps. Čavić also was World and European champion, as well as world record holder. He is one of three swimmers who broke 50 seconds in the 100m butterfly and he currently holds the European record.
context_section_description: Čavić represented Serbia at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, People's Republic of China in two swimming events.  Even though he qualified for the 100 metre freestyle semi-final Čavić withdrew in order to prepare for the 100 metre butterfly.
  On August 14, 2008 at the Beijing Olympics, Čavić broke the 100 meter butterfly Olympic Record during the preliminary heats, finishing ahead of Michael Phelps and also recorded the fastest time in the semi-finals. Čavić came in second to Phelps by 1/100 of a second in the final, and became Serbia's inaugural Olympiad medalist. It was Phelps' seventh gold medal of the Olympiad. The Serbian team initially challenged the result but FINA later confirmed the finish. Čavić later wrote in his blog: "People, this is the greatest moment of my life. If you ask me, it should be accepted and we should move on. I’ve accepted defeat, and there’s nothing wrong with losing to the greatest swimmer there has ever been".
  Čavić continued training at The Race Club.
caption: Čavić on a 2009 Serbian stamp
exif: {"Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "44", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "11555"}